F
380
G2S
UC-NRLF
OO
CO
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/creolesofhistoryOOgayarich
/■/■)-?■
The Creoles gf-History'
•A N D-
vT:He;cp,eoles>oe-romai[ce.
hew; OBLBAlSrr;,
-B Y
HON.- PH^RLES vGAY^^i^RE,
' . I . ■ " , ' " ^"- > — - I ' " . M l !; - ,
- *■ ■ . C K. KOPiUN«| rUBLf»M»»,.«0 ST. CHI ''.t.»^ iT. ," W, O.
^
^
'^'V
,..:■, ThrCreoles of History^
•AND-
,;1JIE CpOLES OF ROMAliCE.
S£LIYI;E£D IH the hall of THB TULANB IJSIY£&SITY,
^'' '''' • HEW OELEAKS, :':"*• ■''' "-^ - '
BY
HON. CHARLES GAYARR]^, ';
• ON THE astii OF %A.r»i^iij, laas.
c« B. Morwn*, puaLMHsm, to %t. cm*<(lb«.«t., n, o.
-* -• X" ^
Reproduced by DUOPAGE process
in the United States of America
MICRO PHOTO Division
Bell & Howell Company
Cleveland 12, Ohio
r3Bo
The Creoles of History
The Creoles of Romance,
LfulicM ami (icnth'mrn :
In ovny imtiiMi tlir liuiiiaii lini^iin;:^ lins inoilitird itNt^U' in
tlio rourH4M»t' tunc. Tln^ M)M*]linji; und pronnnriiition of* nniny
wohIm hiivo Hnin;;(Ml ; tlnMr original nnsinin^ Iuih riMMpuMitly
lHH>onnM>l).s('niv and niiHappliiMl. lint few havt' met h«> strik-
Uiff \\ tranHtornuitinn iih the* wonl rnoUo in SpuniMli, and crvuh
in Frendi, at loast in these Unite<l States, if not in any other
l)art of the worhl ; for it eonveys to tiie immense niajority of
tiie Amerieuus of An«;to-Saxon orip:in a meaning;: that is the
very reverse of its ]>rimitive si^nilieation. Witliont ;roin;j:
into a Unirned etymohi^ricai investigation ab(nit it, 1 will eon-
tent myself with stating that, aectntlin;: to the <1etiuitions
pven by the dictionaries of the French and Spanish Aeailc-
niies, which, as to lan^ua;;e, are a« of mnch final anthonty as
the Snprenie (.'onrt of the United States in nniiters of law,
C reole n>eans the issue of Enropean parents in S panish or
French eoloiiies .
It was first invented by the Simniards to distinjrnish the ir
children^ natives ot their con<pu*red colonial possessions, fro m
the oritrinal natives whom thev found in those newly dis-
coveix'd re^^ions of tlu> e;irMi. Criolh was tlerive<l from tlu^
verb crlar (create), and used only to desi;>:nati^ the Spanish-
created natives, who were not to l>e confonnde<l with the
al)orij;ines — with iH'in^rs of an unknown ori;rin — with the
mahopiny-tinte<l small fry of GwVs creation. Therefore toj ii*
a criollo was to iwssess u sort of title of iionor — a title which
could only Iw tJie birthri;:ht of the sui)erior white race. Tliis
wonl, by an easy transition becoming creule^ from the verb
V. 294
er^^ wft8 mlopted by the French for the same pur|>ose — tJiat
IB, to ineairor signify a white human being created in their
colonies of Africa and America— a native of European ex-
traction, whose origin was known and whose superior Cauca-
sian blowl was never to l>e assimilated to the baser liquid that
ran in the veins of the Indian and African native. This ex-
]»lains why one of that privileged class is proud to this day of
calling himself a Creole, and clings to that appellation.
Now that I have from unquestioiiiible authorities explained,
a»;0 I hoi)e to the satisfaction of this audience, the original
meaning of the word Creole, I ask your i)ermi8sion, ladies and
gentlemen, to call your attention to the Creoles of Louisiaiui
in particular.
The exploring exi)edition8 of Hernando Do Soto in 1539, of
Joliet and Marquette in 1073, and of La Salle in 1682, lett
4>ehind them no Creoles. Those heroic adventurers founded
no colony, either Fi-ench or Spanish, and had with them no
white woman. The tirst colonists date from 1G09, when two
brothers, Iberville and Bienville, Canadians of noble birth
and distinguished officers of the navy of France, formed a
settlement in Ijouisiana. From that time to a later one there
were «i> difterent classes of i>eople in the colony : the Euro-
l»ean — the Creole, or the issue of European parents — the pure
Indian — the Metis, or Mestizo, a cross luitween the white and
the Indian — the Grilfe, proceeding from the African and the
Iiulian — the Mulatto, from the white and African. Gradually
these varieties crystalized into only two elements of popula-
tion — the Knroi>eans and the Creoles constitutintr one elemen t
(the white;; the o thi*r^ »*nilinu'infr > vl»it is kuown under tl|e
ge neral appellation of blacky or colored, |»eople, who hadj ],
much i jitj'H"'' HoiMiil standing, and no |M)litical status wha t-
ever. From the very lH>ginning to the late war of secession,
the strongest line of <lemarcation — 1 may say an impassable
one — was kept up l>etwcen what may l)e calle<l these two
halves of the population, and not the slightest cause or pr<»-
text was ever given for confounding the one with the other.
When the first Creole of [^>uisiana was born, that is, the
f
first uative of pure wliitej jloot^ Governor Bienville .ind Coni-
missary Salmon thon<jlit it an event snfticiently important to
make it the Rubjcct of a joint dispatch to the French jjovern-
inent. His name was Clande Jonsset, and he was the son ot a
Canadian, who was a small trader in Mobile. The word creole^
in tlie conrse of time, was so extended as to apply, not merely
to children lK)rn of European parentHy bnt also to animals, veg-
etables and fruits, and to everything produced or manufac-
tured in Ijouisiana. There were Creole horses, creole cattle,
ci'eole eggs, creole corn, creole cottonade, etc. The negroes
born within her liniits were Creoles to distinguish them from
the imported Africans, and from those who, long after, were
brought from the United Statej*. It is iujpossible to compre-
hend how so many intelligent peoph* should have so com-
l»letely reversed the meaning of the word vr€oh\ when any (#ne
of the numerous <lictionaries within their easy re«ach conhl
have given them coiTect information on the subject. What
could have led to such a delusion in the ])ublic mind ?
Whence the source of so strange an error? The labor n^i^es-
sary to gratify curiosity on that jmint might l»e ]»rofitless, and
the fullest investigation might not, after all, solve the i)rob-
lem. But it is imi>ortant to correct the error itself, whatever
may be the ditHculty, or even imiiossibility of finding out itH
cause. It has l)ecome high time to demonstrate that the
Creoles of Louisiana, whose number to-ilay may ap]M-ox-
imately l>e e8timate<l at 250,000 souls, have not, because of /
the name/ they War, a particle of African blood in their y
veins, and this is what I believe to have clearly e.^ablisluMl.
It nmy be desirable now that I shouhl show what was the
a ncestry of those Creole s. I will proceed to peifonn that task.
The first settlement was made at Biloxi by (Canadians in
1C99. They were people o( high and h>w degree. The chiefs
were educated and refined ; «on»e of their followers were coarse
and illiterate. It d(K*8 not a]>peartliat there was any white
woman among them. In 1704 there was another settlement
at Mobile, and in that same year one of the menibers of the
French cabinet wrote to Governor Bienville, ** that His Maj-
esty 80iit twenty girU, carefully selected, of induHtrious
liabitH, Hkillful ut work; of exemplary virtue and piety, and
destined to be married to Canadian settlers and others of the
same class, in order that the colony be established on a solid
foundation." In 1705 t here came twenty-three resjKfCtable
;;irls escorted by three priests and two nuns, which girls were
to be married, not to officers, not to gentlemen, but to dis-
charged soldiers, tillers of the soil, mechanics and laborers of
all sorts. There came also on the same ship, not bandits, not
convicts, but seventy-five soldiers. Thus far there is nothing
so impure as what is mentioned in certain works of fiction
that have l>een acceptinl as historical.
In 170(} Hienville wrote to the home government: **That
most of the women in the colony were Parisians.'* 1 beg this
assembly not to forget this fact, and therefore not to give im-
i)licit faith to mnlicious compositions which repivsent those
Parisian mothers jis having be<|ueathed to their children a
jargon that no Frenchnum could understand.
i\\ order to demonstrate that the French otticers did not^ as
a rule, choose their wives^^ as asserted by a romancing libeller,
ainon g^ womeii^of ill-fai'ie, and not even among the virtuous
ones of a rank inferior to theirs, 1 quote a letter from the
woman who hild In charge the " cart»tully selected aiul pious
girls '^ sent by Louis XIV, as already stated. She wrote in
170(5 to one of the King's ministers at Versailles, " that Major
de Hoisbriant, who commanded at Mobile, had l>een disposed
to marry her, but that he had been prevented from <loing so
by M. de I\jenville and his brother,'' who ]>rol)ably thought
that it was a dis]>araging match, whereupon she remarks,
with refi*eshing simplicity, " therefore, Monseigneur, your
excellency will see that M. dc Bienville lias not the necessary
qualifications to govern this country.'*
The fact is that it was a neies.sary qualification for the ruler of
the colony, at that time, to Im» by temperament disposed to en-
courage marriages, rather than check them, piirticularly wIkmi
thei-e were as yet but two families in tlie province. No native
of French descent had yet made his i»pp«»arance, the desired
Creole was still absent — and under such circumstances ilovei-
uor Bienville opposed a marriage ! This was an evident infrac-
tion of sound policy. The French government, however, paid
no attention to the lady's denunciation of Bienville's peculiar
disqualification to be the governor of a country whose first
want was population. But the sagacity of her sex was not at
lault on that occasion ; for, subsequently, Bienville quarrelled
with Governor de Lamothe Cadillac, who i)€i'secutcd him for
refusing to marry his daughter; and, furthermore, Bienville,
with wicked iH»rlinacity, remained a confirmed bachelor
through his very long life.
In 1713 Commissary Duclos wrote to the Ministry that
twelve girls who had lately arrived were undoubtedly virtu-
ous, but extremely ugly. " We have,** he said, succeede<l in
l>rocuring luisbands for two of thenj ; it will l>e ditlicult to
get rid of the rest. We shall do our best as soon as possible.
Our Canadian coureum de hoin^ ou voyogcrn (travelers thiough
forests anil the wilderness) are likely fellows, and want wives
08 goo<l looking as themselves. Th**y want less virtue and
more l)eauty.'' 1 confess that this lK*gins to siivor badly, but
I show my candor in not concealing the truth. It must be
observed, however, that this applies only to a certain class of
men from whom much delica<'y is not to \w. expected.
In 1714 Governor de Lamothe Cndillmr tidviKPil rli«* Fiy^.l!
government to send, if possible, women of a higher order ,
wlio should be qualified to marry officer s and such colonist,^
as were educated and retlned. This dispatch shows conclu-
sively that the French officers could not have In^en disposed
to degrade themselves in their conjugal alliances, as compla-
cently published with unaccountable malignity in a recent
work. Other evidences of this kind abound, but to bring
them all out would exhaust the ])atience of this audience.
W^hilst the destinies of Louisiana w^ere in the hands of the
Company of the Indies, the famous financier Law sent to that
colony, at ditlerent time^, a very large number of honest
German agriculturists. The last of them, numbering two
l.undred ami fifty, came in 1721, under the command of Chev-
6
alier cVArensboarg, a Swede, who had distingiiiBhed himself
in the service of his king, Charles XII, and to whom that
monarch had presented a sword as a testimonial of his esteem.
That sword was long kept as a relic in his family. The de-
scendants of those immigrants, of conrse, were Creoles. They,
in the long rnn of time, forgot everj' word of German that
they ever knew, and spoke no other langnage than French —
real French — not a hybrid jargon.
in 1731 the white population of Louisiana was about 6000
souls, and the black 2000. It had already become necessary
in 1724 to define and establish permanently the status of both
the whites and blacks. Gov. Bienville, in the name and by
the authority of the King, promulgated the ** Black Code,**
which remained the law of the land during one hundi*ed
years of colonial existence under the French and Spanish
governmenfS^and continued long in force after Louisiana had
become a territory of the United States, and even one of the
sovereign members of the Union.
It raised Alpine heights, nay, it threw the Andes as a wall
between the blacks, or colored, and the natives of France,
as well as the natives of Louisiana, or Creoles. There could
be no marriage between the two races. [If a white master had
a child by a slave, that master was to be punished by the in-
fliction of a heavy fine, and was even liable to any other ar-
bitrary punishment by a court of competent Juiisdiction ac-
cording to the circumntauces of the case. The slave and chihl
were confiscated and adjudicated to the hospital nearest to
the place where the offense was committedrj If in violation of
law a priest celebrated a religious marriage between the two
races that were to be kept so wide ai)art, he was to be severely
punished. It shows the horror of miscegenation that always
existetl, aiul that was ]»reservcd actively alive l)etween the
superior race and the inferior or abject one. The King of
France also j>rohibited any donation during life, or by testa-
ment, to l)e made by the whites to free<lnien, and to blacks
born free, and declared that such donations would be null and
void, ftiul tliat the obje(;t donateil would escheat to Romo iu-
stitutioii of charity.
In 1749 the Creoles, that is to say, the white descendants of^
Euro]>eanK — 1 cannot rei»eat it too often — had become suffi-
ciently numerous to constitute an active element that was to
be distinguished fVom the natives of France, the Indians, and
the negroes, or colored people. In that year, the Governor,
Marquis of Vaudreuil, himself a native or Creole of Canada,
said in an official dispatch : ♦* It is to be regretted that there
ai-e not more Creoles. They are the best men to fight the In-
dians.^ I call the attention of this audience to the indi.'tput-
able fact that, at all epochs under the French, Spanish aud
American governments, the oft'eirsive and <lefensive forces of
Louisiana never ceased to ho clearly enumerated in this pre-
cise way or order: The regulars — the militia, composed of
Eurojieans and their descendants, called crco/<?»— the friendly
Indians—and the iiegroes or colored peojde. The negroes and
the Indian s ne ver were admitted into the militia; they formed '
separate bodies that could not and never were amalgamated
with the whites^
In 1751 the Marquis of Vaudreuil i)ublished an ordinance
or decree, which, among other articles, contained this one:
*^ Any Frenchman so infamous as to harl>or a black slave for
the pur]H^se of inducing him or her to lead a scandalous life,
shall be whipped by the public executioner, and without
mer^y sentenced to the galleys for life." This does not look
much like a dis]»osition to encourage the commingling of
whiter and blacks.
Before the French revolution of 1789, young men of gentle
birth were frequently admitte<l into the army as volunteers to
l>e trained to the military )>rofession, with the well founded
l»rosi>ect of having their shoulders soon decorated with epau-
lets. In the mean time they were favored with pay and ra-
tions, and were designated under the name of cadets. In
connection with this usage, Michel de la Kouvilliere, the
French Commissary, and the official next iu dignity and
lH)wer to the Governor, eom])lains in one ok his dispatches of
8
the abuse of this privilege by the Marquis of Vaudreuil. He
informs the Ministry' ** that the Governor appointed, as cadets
in the French troops, boys of fifteen months to six years old/
This, if true, was evidently wrong; but it shows this, which
is to my imrpose — that those infant bi>ys were of course Cre-
oles, that they were white, and even of gentle blood, and uot
the sons of low and immoral women.
A certain well known writer has disseminated the belief
that the French oflftcers of that epoch, who most of them
were nobles, for the very good reason that it was very difti-
cult for plebeians to be commissioned in preference to aspir-
ants of that privileged class, were so low and degraded in
tastes and habits that, with sui)ine forgetfulness of their
rank, they chose their wives among Indian squaws and the
house of correction girls of France, and, what is more
sti-auge, that they were exceedingly proud of what they had
done. To this modern slanderer I oppose the testimony ot a
living witness of that distant epoch. The French Commissary,
Michel de la liouvilliere, in an official dispatch complains, not
of any base humility, not of too improper condescensions on
the part of the officers, but, on the contrary, denounces their
towering juide. He writes: "Who says officer says all.
AVhen that word officer is pronounced everybody must
tremble. Whenever any one of these gentlemen has any
difficulty with any civilian, he never foils to exclaim, */)o you
knoic^ sir, that you are npeaking to an officer t ^ and should, by
chance, the case come before me, the officer always addresses
me in these words: * IWrn/, sir! How (Jared this complainant
thus speak to an officer j or thus to act toicanls an officer V ^ This
is not the tone of men who were so low as to be fond of marry-
ing squaws, negroes and French i>rostitute jail birds !
It was under the administration of the Marquis of Vau-
dreuil that sixty girls who had been as.-^ertaineil to be virtu-
ous were transported to Louisiana -it the expense of the King.
It was the last cargo of that kind of niercliaiidise that was
brought to the colony. Those girls were given in marriage
to sohliers whose time was out, and to whom concessions of
9
land were made. Each couple was supplied with a cow and
calf, a rooster and five hens, a gun, an ax and a spade, and
for three years, dating from the first day of their settlement,
they were furnished with a certain quantity of powder, shot,
and see<ls. It is to be hoped that, in return, they pro<luced an
abundant crop of Creoles^ as was expected. The colony had
now l>een in existence fifty-one ye:irvS, and 1 am not at all dis-
posed to conceal that, during that perio<l of time, some house
of correction girls were trans])orted to it at different epochs
by the government, but the colonists ])rotested against it,
and, as far »\s can be ascertained, it does not appear, after all
that the numl>er of thos*» women exceeded one hundred and
sixty. I do not think that it is so bad a showing, and it is
])robable that there are not many colonies, either ancient or
modern, that have a much better record. No new country
hna ever been stmrked with none but entirely virtuous and
refined i>eo]>le, and, even in the oldest, vice occui)ies but too
large a space. There is everywhere an inevitable compound
of the bad and the good, and it is not fair to Judge of the
character of a whole imputation from some of the peculiarities
of its component imrts. So be it for Louisiana.
In 1754, un<ler the administration of (lovernor Kerlerec,
some very excellect families from Lorraine emigrated to
Ijouisiana, and in 1705, there began to come a very large
number of those Acadiana who had been expelled from their
native country by the English. They were very simple and
honest people, of unmixed white blood, and their descendants
are to be found all over the State, wh-^re many of them have
acquired wealth and risen to the highest offices. Thus far it
is impossible to imagine by what process of. ratiocination any
human mind could arrive at the conclusion that the Creole
population of Louisiana must be looke<l upon as being colored,
and as having their veins tainted with African blood.
So intense at all times was the aversion among the Creoles
to associate with the colored people that in 1707, the Marchio-
ness of Abnulo, having come from Peru to marry the Spanish
(lovonior, Don Antonio de TTlloa, to whom she had been afll-
10
anced, and having brought with her some female Peniviau
friends whose complexion was yel!ow, the Creole ladies, taking
them for colored women, refused to visit the Mai-chionv^ss, be-
ciiuse, as they said, she kept company with mulatresses.
Ulloa, having been driven away by the rebels of Louisiana,
wrote from Havana to the Spanish government that his ex-
pulsion was caused by the hostility of the descendants of four
Canadians who had settled in the colony. Of course these
descendants were ci*eoles, and this shows that there Ix^gan
to be important personages in that class of the population.
Count CVReilly, after having quelled the rebellion in 17C9,
bestowed on Creoles some of the highest offices, civil and mili-
tary. I invite your attention to the census which he ordered
to be taken of the population of New Orleans in 1770. Ob-
serve how distinct the Creoles are kept from the colored people
in that census : Whites, 1803 ; slaves, 1223 ; free, of pure Af-
rican blood, 31 ; of mixed blood, 68— total, 3187. Count
O'Ueilly confirmed and maintained the " Black Code,'' which
established such a barrier of adamant between the African
and (Caucasian, and showed in every possible way that he
knew better than to (;onfound the Creoles with the colored
I)eople. Unzaga, his successor, was as well informed, an<l
married a Creole, who showed iH.Tself worthy of her high posi-
tion in Louisiana, and of her subsequent one, when her hus-
band was appointed Captain General of the province of
Caracas.
Count Bernardo de Galvez j^ucceeded General Unzaga in
1777. In 1780 war Inking declared between Spain and (ireat
Britain, he took, in a rapid campaign, Mancliac, Baton Kouge,
Natchez, Mobile and Pensacola, then in the possession of the
English. In the narration which he nuikes of his military
operations, he enumerates his forces in a very discriminating
manner — the regulars; the militia, composiKl only of whites;
a few American volunteers; a body of Indians, an^l a luMly of
<'olored troops, wl"» at the time were not, and never, at any
time since, were admitted into the n;ilitia, In^cause it was the
]nivilege of the whites alone to constitute the militia. Count
11
de Galvcz, like Uuzaga, inarritHl a Creole whilst governor; his
only child, a Creole, married an European prince. Galvez died
Viceroy of Mexico, like his father.
In 1785 Miro succeeded Galvez, and like him, marrie<l a
Creole. A singular infatuation on the part of those men, and
' of almost all the Si)anisli officers and dignitaries of high rank
who came to Louisiana during a i)eriod of about thirty-four
years, to invariably ally themselves to so abject a impulation
as is described by a certain literary dime speculator — a i)opu-
lation whose best men, according to the same authority, are
bullies, knaves and fools, with the brains of a jackass, the
heart of an alligator, and th*» tongue ot a gibberish monkey —
and whoso l)est women, born of lawful wedlock, are inferior
in every respect, to the colored biistard issue of libertinism
and concubinage! Governor Miro seems to have entertained
on that subject, as ! will show, views very different from those
of a mo<lern sentimentalist, who, being color blind himself,
wants to make the worhl l>elieve that black is white and
white is black.
Shortly after entering upon the duties of his office he had a
census taken ot the free colored population of Louisiana. It
amounted to 1100. He issued a proclaniation in which he de-
clared that the idleness of free negro, mulatto, and quadroon
women, resulting from their living on incontinence and liber-
tinism, must no longer be tolerated ; that they must renounte
their mo<le of living and betake themselves to honest labor.
He proclaims his intention to have them, if they neglect his
' admonitions, sent out of the province, warning them that he
will consider their excessive attention to dress as an evidence
of misconduct. He further complains that the distinction
which had been established concerning the head-dress of
colored females and white women was disregarded, and an-
nounced that he would have it enforced. He forbids the col-
ored women to wear plumes and jewels and directs them to
have their hair bound in a kerchief. Lastly, he torbids them
" to have nightly assemblies.'^ This is a discrimination with
n vengeance l>etween the colored people and the Creoles, from
12
wliose ranks he hml taken liiA wife ! A m^rimonial example
followwl by one of the last governors, Oayoso ile Lenios.
In 1803, wlion the French took teni]>omry i)ossesslon of
Lonisiana by vlrtne of the cossion of it nuule by Spain, the
lirefect, Laiissat, who represented the French government,
appointed Belle<*liasse, a creole, commander-inchief, with the
gnule of colonel, of all the militia of the city and of all the
free colored companies, showitig that they were distinct fnnn
the militia, exclusively composed, as 1 have idready stated, of
whites ; and by a special proclamation he nniintained in fall
fon;e the " Black Code,'' promulgated in 1724, in which wjis
shown such a horror of miscegenation and an uncompromising
determination to keep as far apart as the antipodes the two
races destined to live side by side on the same soil, without
the possibility of a fusion of their social relations. This was
done, particularly to appease the alarms of the Creoles, who
lia<l iMicome attached to the Spanish government and feannl
tlie new fangled ideas then germinating in France about the
equality and fraternity of all men without distinction of color
and race. Evidently the natives of Louisiana who, during
more than one hundre<l years, showed such hostility to any
social, civil, nulitary and political association with people of
African descent, cannot, by any logical construction of lan-
guage an<l facts, be sui)posed to admit that they are colored
when they openly call themselves creolcH.
Monette, an American author, says in his History of the
Valley of the Mississippi, that on the eve of the ceremonies
tliat were to attend the transfer of Louisiana from France to
tlie United States, a number of enterprising y<mng Americans
associated themselves in a volunteer comiwniy under the lead-
ership of Daniel Tlark, the consul of the United States, to
l>reserve order in the city of New Orleans, and were joined by
a number of imtrioiic French creolen. Will anybody InOieve
that those creoh's whom the Americans thus pressed to their
bosom witli fraternal embrace were colore<l ?
The colonial inefect, Laussat, rei)resentative of France, and
the Marquis Uasa Calvo representative of Spain, vied with
each other hi tho RpleuclIU i'cKtlvltlc* they ^avo iit the ej^oeh
of the cohkIoii, A Freiichiniui who wivh present fnvorM uh with
n deMTiptioii oi tlieiii in iv \)ook whhHi he ]>ubliHhe(l on the ^
HubJiH't. **The LoniHiunu huUeH,*^ ho Htiys, meaning the rre-
oU>M, for there were hardly any other in the eoh>ny at that
time, ** appeared with a nnijrnitleenee that wan a eanne of an-
toniMhnient, and lui^^lit have been compared witli any eftortn ot*
that Mort even in tlie i>rinci])al eitien of France. Tlie hidli'M
who nuvy JnMtlybenahl to be nwnarliabh^ for their Inibltnal
gravity, aro generally tall and exfpiihitely nhaped. 'J1ie ala-
banter whitenenM of their com]>le.\ioM, which waH adniiralily
net oft Uy their li^ht drcMHeH, adorned with tlowi*rH antV rich
enibroideiy, pave a fairy-like ai)i)earan<'e to thone f«»MtiviticH."
ThiH elegance alwayn prevailed in New Orleann tVoni the be«
ginning; of itH exiHtence as theca]utal of the colony. In 1727,
.Magdelene llachard, one of the UrHullne KnnH who came to
Hcttlo in that town, tlniH dcMcribcM it in a private letter ad-
drcHHcd to luT father at Kouen : ♦♦ I can aHMore you, my dear
father, that 1 hardly realiMe that I am on the bankH of the
MiH8iKHipi»i, bocauMe there Ih here an mnch mapiitlccnce and
politencHM aM in France, (iold and Vfl vet HtntfK, with coHtly
ribbonH, are coninM»nly UKcd, althon^h thfycoHt three TlmcH iim
• mnch aHat Koncn.^ All thin Ih trne. The IndicM ])owdercd
their hair, roti};ed, ])ainted their cheekn, ow which tliey wore,
at H\)0{H tastefully clnmun, nnmll patches of black nilk, called
inouchcH^ or " flies,** exactly as was done at the court ot Ver-
HaiUo8. The gentlemen sported the sword as an evidence of
rank, adorned themselves with lace, and some of them had
diamond buckles at the knee and on the shoes. It is re-
markable that ever since those days to the present. French-
men and other foreigners who visited New ()rleans, have al-
ways said that, on jvcconnt of the rettnement of its society
and of the language spoken in it, they were more vividly
reminde<l of' Paris than in any other Americaik city. I will
even go iurther and say that nniny Frenchmen, after some
residence here, have assured me that they preferred living in
»w Orleans than in any of the provincial cities of France.
14
LausMt, in 1803, in a dispatch to his government, describea
the Creoles, not aa colored men, bat aa the worthy deseendantn
of the French. He says " that they are gentle and docile, bat
touchy, proud and brave.'' .
If the primary signification of the word Creole be strictly
adhere<l to, then there are very few natives of Louisiana .
living who can, since the cession of that territory to the
United States, in 1803, appropriately call themselves creates^
because they were not born of European parents in a French
or Spanish colony. Etymologically speaking, the word Louin-
ianian would be now the correct one. But if the world creole
is used simply to designate the descendants of the ancient
French and Gpanish population, it may l>e considered as not
being improperly employed, and may even be fondly cherished
as recalling to their memory that their origin is traced back
to the founders of the colony. In this sense of the word the
Creoles are the Knickerbockers of Louisiana.
In 1806, under the rdministration ot Claiborne, a census was
taken of the population of that portion of Louisiana known as
the " Territory of Orleaiift,^ of which he was the Ooveraonui.
In- that cemms the Creoles and the colored i>eople are mentioned
with precise discrmination : Creoles 13,500 ; free colored 3355 ;
Americans 3500 ; Europeans 5714 ; total 26,069. The slaves '
wei*e about as numerous.
In 1809, Claiborne, in a dispatch to the Secretary of State
at Washington, speaks of the Creoles as the white descendants
of the French, and declares himself strongly opposed to per-
mitting fi*ee colored people to come to Louisiana. I will
not expatiate further on the subject. This is enough, 1 be-
lieve, to show historically, that thf«« never wvLSt any grtmnd
for the impression which has become an incrustation in the
heads of a large portion of the people of the Unitetl States,
that Creole means a person having African blood in, his or her
veins. Whence this idea originated it is impossible to im-
agine, and it will forever remain a matter of astonishment.
Any dictionary,^if looked into, would have corrected the mis-
15
take, ami the merest attention to facts of a striking notoriety
would have been sufficient to dissipate all doubt.
Governor Claiborne married successively two Creoles. Gen-
eral Wilkinson, commander-inohief of the army of the United
States, married one. Edward Livingston, Senator of the
United States, Secretary of State, Minister Plenipotentiary,
married a Creole. The number of Americans from every part
of the United States who have allied themselves by marriage
to Creole families is so large that it cannot be calculated. Dis-
tinguished men from every European nation have married
Creoles, knowing them to be Creoles and frequently proud
that they were Creoles, and the Emperor Napoleon the Great
B|)oke with enthusiasm of the inimitable graces of his Creole
wife, the Empress Josephine. The Creole women of Louisiana
have been much admired and their merits fully appreciated in
the most polished courts of Europe ; they have entered the
mansions of the highest nobility with the dignifled footstep of
perfect equality, and I could fill up a long list with the hiscor*
ical names of barons, viscounts, counts, marquises, dukes and
princes, who were happy to place their coronei:8 on the fair
brows of Louisiana's Creole daughters. Have not the watering
plucsSfe the hotels and the private saloons of the Korth and
West been crowded for the last eighty years with our Creole
ladies, to whom the heartiest welcome was tendered ? Were
they ever known, on any occasion, in any circumstance, and
in any place whatever on which the sun shines, to conceal and
deny that they were Creoles ? Did they ever look and act as
if they had sprung from such mothers as those women de-
scribed by the Spanish Governor Miro, whom he ordered to
abstain from wearing feathers and jewels, and directed to
make an honest living by labor, and to tie a kerchief round
their bair 1 So much for the Creole women.
Xow for the mea. They have for years and years filled with
credit the highest legislative, judicial and executive offices of
the State j they have distinguished themselvea in the army
and navy of the United States, and there is no official posi-
tion iu thfi Federal government to which they have not risen,
>U
16
wive that of President of the United State*-. In the ordinary
occu)>ation8 of life, many, as lawrem, pbysiciaos, merchants,
planters, agriuultnriAts, have occupied conspicnons positions.
In the mechanical and fine arts, as well as in the sciences, some
, have obtained the most striking proficiency.
Abroad, more than one Creole has risen to the highest emi-
nence. The learned Jesuit, Abbe Viel, gained in Paris a
• literary celebrity. Audubon is immortal ; Aubert Dubayet,
after having faught for the independence of the United States,
became a member of the National Assembly in France, and
its president, for a fortnight, lieutenant genera!, commander-
inchiet, minister of war, ambassador at Constantinople; Bro-
nier de Clouet became a general, governor of one of the pro-
vinces of Cuba, senator in Si>ain, arid was created Count de
laFernandina; Daunoy, lieutenant general in Spain; Beluche,
admiral in South America ; Villamil, general and ambassador;
I)eli)it, one of the most distinguished and successful literary
men in Paris; Paul Morphy, the wonderful chess player;
Gottschalk,. the famous pianist and comi^oser; and lately, a
trreole of Louisiana rose to l)e a member of the French cabinet.
This nomenclature might be considerably extended.
The Creole poimlation now witliin the present limits of the
State of Louisiana may l)e estimated at 250,000. I huve
shown that the Unite<l States have no cause to blush for hav-
ing gathertMl' them under the star spangled banner. They,
with patriotic xeal, fought against the English in the war of
1814-15, and also in our subscciuent conflict wMth Mexico. Is
it not time to do away with the absunl notion that these
l>eopln are colored, particularly when it is so easy to know the
truth on the sjibjcct, an<l when it is a sign of pro<ligiouM ignor-
ance that such an error should be kept up in the face of all th«<
eircunistnn<'es an4l in utter disregard of all the ta<*ts which \
have stated.
.Another in>pn*ssion in the United States, e(|ually unjust and
aggravating is, that Louisiana has originally been popu1ate<l
ehietiy by eonvicts, by nuMi aiuKwonien of immoml habits,
and sjnung from the most ignorant an<l lawless class of Euro-
17
peaii society. I liuve, 1 believe, demonstrated that uoth*ug
could be more erroneous. There never came to Louisiana anj'
people in reality worse than those who are commonly disposed
to migrate to European colonies. As to the military officers
and all the employes of the government daring a hundred
years, they were most of them, gentils hommes^ nobles, as their
names show, being generally preceded, among the French, by
the aristocratic prefix ; de. Many were titled. They became
the heads of families, and I should not be afraid to wager
that, in proportion to the ))opulation, there are as many, if not
more, i)eople of gentle blood in Louisiana as any where else in
America. The mere accident of noble or plebeian birth has
l)ecome very insignificant in this age. But, since the question
has been raised, I say that there is more than one individual
among us, in an humble position, particularly since the late
war, whose ancestors were knights who fought as Crusaders
in the fields of Palestine ; and others could prove that they
are nobles from time immemorial by thiB grace of God, and
not by the favor of any prince — which, by the by, is the high-
est degree of nobility, far above any manufactured mushroom
ducal title. Nevertheless, Jjouisiana has always been socially
the most democratic State in the Union. The Creole popula-
tion has always lacked self-assertion, not to say brass. In
the days of the greatest prosi)erity there never was displayed
a coat of arms on the panel of any carriage by those who had
the best title to it, nor has any one of our families put a livery
even on a slave, and the poorest podler traveling with his box
on his back never was refused hospitable admitt.ance to the
princely niansion and table of the wealthiest planter. In no
country- was there less of the pufied arrogance of wealth and
of the foolish pride of birth.
And this is the i>opulation which one accidentally bom in
its bosom and claiming by virtue of that accident the right,
not only to speak in the name of Louisiana^ but also of the
whole South, represents a^ very little better than the Yahoos
in Gnllivei's travels by Dean Swift ! I bog pardon of all lit-
erary men for associating. the names cf Swift and Cable. It
18
is almost an insult to the memory of the former. But Dean
Swift intenclwl his Gulliver's travels to be only a satire, while
Mr. Cable has assumeil to write novels based on, and in con-
formity to^ history or accepted tra<litions, and purporting t-o
be a faithful poilraiture of realities. I must admit that I
have read only what passes for the best of his works — the
** Grandissiraes.'' When that book api>eared, I remember
having read these remarks in the Phila<lelphia Times, or some
other well known paper of that city : " Mr. Cable's Grandis-
simes struck us as excee<lingly dull, when published in serials
in Scribner's ^lagazine. and it appeared to us still more dull
when presented in the heavier form of a book. But its chief
value is derived from its being so minute and faithful a de-
scription of a peculiar people in the United States with which
we are so little acquainted, and to which the author himself
belongs.^ I am sure that this is the sense of the passage to
which I have referred, if not its precise words. It becomes
therefore important for us who may sufter from the obliquity
of the author's vision, and in general tor all those who, bj'
|.eruHing his works, may be led into egregious errors, to as-
certain if the dullness of the writer is compensated by the
veracity of his st^-tements, the accuracy of his descriptions or
appreciations, and the verisimilitude of his creations.
On the threshold of the very rapid and short review which
time and your patience will permit me to make of only a few
pages of the " Grandissimes,'' 1 call your attention to one of
the monstrous absurtlities that form the tissue of a composi-
tion in which the audacious mutilation of what is truth in a
matter of tact world, and the distortion of what could pos-
sibly be supposed by a sound mind to exist at all in the world
of probabiliti<*s, exceeil nil ])rec-edents. If Mr. Cable had rep-
resented the luoAt distinguished of our creole families as hav-
ing forgotten to 8|)eak French, and as using only the jargon
whicli the negi-oes had constructed out of that language, this
invention would have far exceeded the limits of those liberties
which fancy in its wildest flights may be permitted to take
with common sens**. JUit when he makes them pn*fer, not the
19
•
Freuch, not the Creole negro patois^ but the broken English of
the negroes of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, etc., the per-
version or depravity of his intellect becomes overpowering
and incomprehensible. He must have known that this was
lmiK)S8ible. If he did know, and how could it be otherwise,
why this violation of truth ? If he says that he did not, he
admits himself to be as ignorant of what he writes about, as
the most uncultivated donkey is about the movements of a
planet. 1 will state that I have carried his famous novel to
intelligent negroes who could read, and not one of them could
understand the spelling and pronunciation of the language
attributed to their race. It seems to have been a secret pos-
sessed only by the Grandissime families of 1803. It had been
lost, but has l)een lately discovered by Mr. Cable.
The story of the ** Grandissimes** begins with a charity ball
given for the relief of yellow fever patients in the end of Sep-
tenil)er, 1803, at a favorable moment when an available spell
of cool weather had set in. The best families of New Orleans
are there assembled. Here is a specimen of the descriptive
and pictui-esque style of the writer : " The perfumed air of the
ball-rooai was thrilled with the wailing ecstasy of violins.^
Acconling to the English meaning of the word thrill, ve are
given to understand that this wailing ecstasy of the violins had
l>ierced the perfumed air with a sharp shivering sensation, and
we logically infer that the shivering air must have communi-
cated its own sensation to the whole assembly and consider-
ably refrigerated its cheerfulness. But what sort of dances,
oontradance^ and waltzes must the violins have been playing
to bo thrown into ji "wailing ecstasy f ' If it were possible to
unite together wailing and ecstasy, it certainly would suit a
funeral l>etter than a ball. Suddenly, however, this perfumed
air that was thrille<l with the wailing ecstasy of violins, warm-
ing itself out of its chilled ox>ndirion, seems, in the inimitable lan-
guage of the author, "to breathe, to sigh, to laugh, while the
musicians, with dislievcled locks, streaming brows and fnri*
ons bows, strike, draw, drive, scatter from the anguished vio-
lins a never-ending rout of screaming harmonies P Surely,
20
we understand the terrible finflferingg of tlioAe agonize<l vio-
lins, but it is absolutely wonderful that tlie assembly, l>eing
assailed "by this never-ending ront of screaming bai monies,''
<lid not clap their hands to their ears, and did not run away
as fast as permitted by their agonized nerves. You may think,
perhaps, ladies and gentlemen, that you will be spared a fur-
ther exhibition of the torture of those ill-fated violins. No ; a
little more endurance, if you please; for, those instruroentSy
notwithstanding their fits "of wailing ecstasy" followed by
their "scattering a never-ending rout of screaming harmo-
nies," would occasionally " burst into an agony of laughter."
Now, I can safely assure you that Mr. Cable's oreoles are as
fantastically absunl, as ridiculously fanciful, and as glaring
impossibilities as the screaming harmonies of Mr. Cable's
violins.
While the violins were cutting such antics, a rumor circu-
lates in the ball-room that France had ceded Ijouisiana to the
United States, and much consternation is the result. At that
moment Mr. Cable introduces to his readers the head or chief
of one of the highest and most distinguished families of
Ijouisiana. His name is Brahmin Mandarin Agricola Fuselier
de (irandissime. This uncouth mass of vulgar pomposity is ad-
dicted to roaring like a lion, and a very ill-bred lion too. On
this occasion he roars more fieively than ever, and the whole
assembly becomes tremblingly silent. Then the lion, con-
descending to use human language, shouts that the pretended
treaty of cession is apocr>'phal, because it contains no special
<*lau8e for the protecition of the family of Brahmin Mandarin
Agri(jola Fuselier de Grandissime ! So striking an argument
is accepted as satisfactory ; the public mind is restored to its
usual tranquillity, and dancing recommences. Will you be-
lieve, ladies and gentlemen, in the iM)ssible existence of such
an imbtHjile i>opulation f
There are other conspicuous i>ersoiiages in that masked
ball. One represents a dnigon of Bienville with a gilde<l
cas()ue and a heron's pluuie, and a Huguenot JlUe a la caHsette^
a " Huguenot casket girl," although there never were in Louis-
21
iana such a dragon and snch an imported Huguenot girl, with'
a casket, or no casket. There is also a woman in the costume
of a monk. The dragon and the monk flirt togetlier. If time
permitted me to give a sample of their conversation, you wouhl
think it the silliest that ever came out of human lips. Mr.
Cable seems to be aware of it, for he calls it a child-like badi-
nage. Why this " child-like badinage ** between these two
grown up i>er8ons who are destined to be in the novel the
jnost refined and intellectual specimens of creole society t Is
it because he wishes to intimate that Creoles, irom the cradle
to the grave, ever remain in a state of imbecile infancy I Be
it as it may with his intentions, another peculiarity with Mr.
Cable's fancy is to make a Creole laugh whenever he or she
speaks, either to say good morning or good night. In two
short pages and a half, printed in large type, and relating this
crild-like conversation, the word laugh is found sixteen times.
...t first the words of the future heroine of the novel "were
entangled with a musical, open-hearted laugh." An open-
hearted laugh may be musical, but as a broad, open-hearted
laugh ])recludes the possibility of uttering words at the same
time, how can unuttered words be entangled with such a
laugh ? It is immediately followed by another laugh " as ex-
ultingly joyous as it was high bred." It is not easy to com-
prehend from any circumstance mentioned in the book why
that laugh was as exultingly joyous as it was high bred. Was
it exultingly joyous because it was high bred, or was it high
bre<l because it was exultingly joyous t It would have been
interesting to know from Mr Cable what are the characterist-
ics of a high bred laugh.
Mr. Cable describes the arrival of a numerous family of
Oerman immigrants. One of them, Joseph Frowenfeld, of teu-
tonic origin, is an American by birth. " What a land pre-
sented itself to their eyes as they ciune up the river T ex-
claims Mr. Cable. " A land hung in mouruiug, darkened by
gigantic cypresses, submerged, a laud of rei^tiles, silence,
shadow and decay P It is to be ho;ied that this description
will not /all into the hands of those whom our State Boaixl of
22
Iin migration is trying to attract to Louisiana. Well ! ftft<^'
having been half clevouied by mosquitoes, the traveler reacbe<l
the " hybrid ^ city of New Orleans. Why hybrid ? Is it be-
cause it was inhabited only by mulattoes and raulattress-
es? Or is it in anticipation of what Mr. Cable hopes it to
l)ecome when black men will marry white women, and white
men marry blacks. Shortly after their arrival all the immi-
grants die of yellow fever, except James Frowenfeld. This
is, by the by, another poor invitation to strangers to come
to Louisiana !
The two representative families of Louisiana — the very best
-:-the cream of the cream — the elite of the elite — as manufac-
tured by Mr. Cable, are the Fuseliers de Grandissime and the
(Irapion Nancannous. The first Graiulissime, a French oftlcer
ot noble birth, married a ragged squaw, born in a " royal
hovel,*^ to use the very words of Mr. Cable, and the queen ot
a very small tribe ot Indians named ** Tchoupitoulas,'' who
<lwelt near the site on which now stands the Crescent City.
His hybrid son marries a lady of rank, a widow without chil-
dren, transported to Louisiana by virtue of a lettre dc cachet,
that is an onler of arrest in the name (»f the King without
assigning any reason for it. The author adds that she was of
inniamed bloo<l. If her blood was so''unkiu)wn that it was
even without a name, how could she be reckoned a lady of
rank ? This is one of a million of absurdities to be picked by
any boy of onlinary common sense in Mr. Cable's master
])iece of brica-brac composition yclept "Grandissimes."
The first of the Grapion Xancannous is also a French officer
of noble birth. "He took,** says Mr. Cable, <* a most excellent
Avife from the first cargo of house of correction girls.^ Of
course, a most excellent wife ! Nothing else could beex])ecteil
from Mr. Cable, whose aim, through his whole book, is to
vilHfy what is reputed noble, and to ennoble what is re]mted
vile. The son of the officer who had so judiciously chosen " a
most excellent wife ^ from among a gang of dissolute women,
married under the admiinstration of the Marcpiis of Vaudreuil
one of the " casket girls,'' that is, one of the girls transported
2?i
to Louisiana, each one with a small box or casket containing
tlio 8(;anty a])parel with whicli they were provided by the gov-
ernment. Mr. Cable, who has an irresistible passion for ab-
surdities, makes of that girl a Huguenot, unaccountably
mixed with Catholic women sent to the Ursuline Nuns, under
M'hose care they were to remain until married. The learned
author should have condescended to explain liow it hapi)ened
that the same government by which the introduction of llu-
giienot» into Ijouisiana was expressly prohibited, had by a
strange exception, jncked up one, given her the clothes she
needed, and packed her off to the address of nuns under
whose wing she was to be placed, until provided with a hus-
band. If these two families, or the like of them, constituted
the l)eRt ones of the ancient population, what must have been
tlie composition of those of an inferior class !
In connei!tion with these marriages, Mr. Cable remarks:
"Thus the Pilgrim Fathers of the Delta of the Mississippi
took with Gallic ret;klessness their wives and moot wives from
the ill si)ecimens ol three races." Gallic recklessness in choos-
ing wives I Mr. Cable quotes this Gallic recklessness ns if it
were someihing proverbial. Why this gratuitous insult to a
whole nation ? Is it because the French have incurred the
guilt in his eyes of having procreated the hated Creole ? But
it is not the only passage of the book in which he shows him-
self af!1icte<l with gallophobia.
What could he those three races from the ill specimens of
which tlie Pilgrim Fathers of tlie Mississi.ipi Delta took their
wives with Gallic recklessness ? There were no other racres at
that time than the Indian, the negro, and the French. What
can he mean by the i7/ specimens *of these three races? Tt
must l)e the least rirtuoutt of the Indian squaws, tlie black
wenches and the French women. This becomes quite serious,
for it is not an assertion placed at random on the lips of some
imaginary cliaracter, but it is the author himself who speaks
— and that author is a Louisianiau by birth — one who claims
to know tlioroughly the jMipulation of which he writes. This
assertion is not confined to a work of fiction, but it is repeated
24
by him in a historical article which he has contributed to the-
Encyclopedia Britannica. Among other things, he says : " A-
few years after its founding New Orleans was little more than
a squalid village of deported galley slaves." Whence his an-
thority for this sweeping assertion T I can ftirni3li Mr. Cable
with a list of the first settlers in New Orleans. There is not
one galley slave among them.
Coming to much later times, he further says in that great
work, the Encyclopedia Britannica, which is to meet the eyes
ot the whole world : " The pestilence of yellow fever — the
plague of the Gulf— made of New Orleans one of its most
famous ambuscades, and the provincialism and lethargy of an
isolated and indolent civilization has allowed this last unfor-
tunate condition to remain uncorrected.'^ Thus Mr. Cable
proclaims to the world, in the face of our Board of Health, that
New Orleans continues to be one of the most famous ambus-
cades of yellow fever ; that nothing has been done to modify,
that " unfortunate condition, and that the provincialism
and lethargy of our isolated and indolent population," has
" changed a port that had promised to become one of the
greatest in the world into a monument of golden possibilities
dwarfed by unforeseen and overpowering disadvantages."
We cannot trace in this portrait of a mother the hand of a
loving son.
I will quote, without ex)mment, from the Encyclopedia two
other passages : ** The famous carnival displays ot NewOrleans
mark one of the victories of Spanish - American over North
American tastes, and probably owe mainly to the Americain
their i)retentious dignity, and to the Creole their more legitim-
ate harlequin frivolity." In his intensifying paroxysms of ma-
niac hostility, he goes on, sayirg: " By the exo<lus of West
Indian Creoles in 1H()9, New Orleans immediately doubled its
]>opulati<)n ; the place natyraUy and easily became the one
stronghold of Latin -American idea« in the Unite<l States, a
harbor of contrabandists, (Tuadeloupian pirates, and Simnish-
American revolutionists and filibusters."
25
Tlion^ arc still living iiuiny descendantH of tboso ril{,a'iin
iatlier« of tlio delta of tlio MissiHwippi who choso their wiveH,
ill preference, arnonjr the most abaiuloaed of the Indian wo-
men, netjiVHses and French girls o^ ill-reimtei I am sure that
there cannot be hero a woman'H heart, or a man's heait, who
will not reH]>ond to mine when I say that it is tht» sacred dnty
of those descendants and of the numerous Americans and Eu-
ropeans allied to them, to jtrotect the reputation of those an-
cestors who cannot conje out of their graves to face and refute
this defamation. It must be kept in mind that Mr. Cable
does not allude to the colonists of the lowest <5laws, but es])eci-
ally to those of the highest— to those whose genealogical trees,
acconling to his own ex])ressiona, " were of the tallest in
France." Mr. ('able slioidd Im^ called upon to name at least a
single one of our good and old families that falls within the
blighting nidius of his description. If he cannot, he will
stand convicted of having nuiliciously slandered a pop\datiou
that seems to l>e the object of his intense hatred.
After njy digressing allusion to Mr. Cable's sentinuMits as
ox])ressed in the Kncydopedia liritannica, I return to the
(trandissimes. The Huguenot girl with whom you Inw been'
made acfpudnted had proved rebellious to the aufhority of
the Ursulines, and they had referred the case to the gover-
nor, Manpds of Vaudreuil, who tells the girl that there is
110 such thing as momlity, honor, principle and religion in the
world, not even in the King of France, not even in the arch-
bislio])s and cardinals; that it is all a farce, particularly in
Ijouisiana ; and what he says is fully sanctioned by the Mar-
quise. This is a monstrous ])erversion of the historical char*
acter of the Marquis, and why f Probably to give Mr. Cable
the opportunity of nniking this remark: *^Thls is the way
they talkeil In Xew Orleans in those days. If you care to un*
derstaud why liouisiuna has grown up so out of Joint, note
the tone of those who goverened her in the middle of the last
century." So it »ecni8 that we are out ot joint, and we shall
continue to In* in that disjointed condition ns long n^ we re«
2ii
fuse to adopt the radical modifications of society proposeil by
Mr. Cable.
The first thing: to be done, according to Mr. Cable's recom»
niendations, to prevent Louisiana from continuing to grow out
of .joint, is to do away with the chronic pride of the Creoles, of
■which here are some specimens that are peculiar to Louisiana,
and never heartl of anywhere else. For instance, says Mr.
Cable, a Creole, as in the case of Agricola Fuselier, will siir-
render a plantation and negroes rather than incur the re-
proach of having won it unfairly at cards, and rather than
stand in the light of the world with a shallow of suspicion
over his name— a specimen of pride No. 1. A Creole woman,
as in the case of Madam Nancanou, will sacrifice everything
she possesses and reduce herself to poverty rather than disa-
vow a debt of honor acknowledged by her husband— pride
No. 2. A Creole gentleman always stands on the punctilio of
honor with which, says Mr. Cable, in his peculiar style, " lie
anoints himself from head to foot," rather than adopt new
i<leas that would develop his financial resources — pride No. 3.
" Do not credit a creole woman when she pretends to be in
comfortable circumstances ; she may at that very moment be
starving." — pride No. 4. This is what Mr. Cable calls a pre-
posterous, apathetic, fantastic i)ride, as lethargic and ferocious
as an alligator, and suicidil I Suicidal ! I like the word. I
like the meaning he gives to it. True, it is suici<lal accordiiig
to Mr. Cable's code of morality, to immolate self-interest to
conscience ; it is suicidal to relinquish a dollar rather than do
what one thinks to be mean. It is suicidal not to follow lago's
advice tolloderigo, "Put money in thy jjocket; I tell thee, put
money in thy ixKJket" — by fair or foul means. Well ! The
Creoles accept as comi)liments what Mr. Cable intends as re-
])roaches, and as they wish to recipro<^ate with due politeness,
I assume the responsibility of declaring openly in their name
that they do not believe him susceptible of any preposterous,
apathetic, fantastic, and suicidal pride in business transac-
tions and lucrative speculations ; that they do not suspect him
of being lethargic where selfintorest speaks even in the fi*e-
27
blest voico ; nor as hoxng as fei-ocioua n« an allij^ator on cer-
tain pnnctilios recognized by a beniglited worUl.
Houori^ do Grandissime, educated in Pafm, and tlie Arst
merchant of New Orleans, whom Mr. Cable represents as a
demi-god when compared with the other Creoles, being on
horseback, meets the immigrant Frowenfehl, who was footing
it in the vicinity of the city. They engage in conversation,
and the yellow lever convalescent consults Ilonore as to the
best way of making a living. This perfection of a Creole gen-
tlemen informs Frowenfeld, in substance, that he is in a coun-
try where principle and virtue do not i)ay. lie njust howl
with the wolves and l)ecome as practical in dishonesty as the
whole population and look at everything as merchandise, as
he himself does — he, Honor<5 <le Grandissime ! He impresses
ui>on Frowenfeld the necessity of his transforming himself
like all those who come to Louisiana — " they hold out a little
while; a very litle, and they assimilate to the rest.** At last,
Honor^ de Grandissime goes so far in his inroads on propriety,
his instructions l)ecorne so oOeusivO; that the immigrant pro-
tests against it with an indignant eiirnestness that made, says
Mr. Cable, " the Creole's horse drop the grass from his teeth
and wlu»el half round." But the men;hant retained his gentle
com|M>sure. Wherefore it must be admitteil that the horso
prove<l himself a much more moral l>eing than his rider, an<l
I must agree with Mr. Cable, when he sarcastically remarks of
Hoi»or6 and Frowenfeld : »* One was a very raw imported ma-
terial for an excellent man, and the other a strikir.g exponent
of a unique land and |>eople''— as invented and patented by
Mr. Cable.
Frowenfeld is not corrupted, however, by Honoi-^, and rt».
taining all the primitive indeiHjndence of his opinions, W-
comes a druggist. Although he is a great leveler, like M/.
Cable, whose moral and intellectual personification he seems
intended to l)e, the Creoles, whom he never ceases to find fault
with, get into the habit of congregating at his shop to discuss
the questions of the day. The author repi-esents their oppo-
sition to the cession as intense. . It seems that they had but
28
two ideas at the time; one was, to defraud the United States
of as much of the public lands as possible by manufacturing
false titles, and the other, to prevent the introduction of the
Enjjlish language into Louisiana, as they would prefer to "eat
dogs" than to speak it. As to the public lands, whether it
was finally Louisiana that robbed the United States, or the
United States that robbed Louisiana, 1 leave Mr. Cable to de-
termine as he may please. But, as to the English language,
I must object to his contradicting himself so manifestly about
the alleged hostility of the Creoles to its introduction. He
forgets that he has represented the Creoles as being so pas-
sionately fond of it long before the cession, that even in the
intimacy of family intercourse they had almost entirely
substituted for the Frencih language of their ancestors, and
for the sweet modulations of the composite dialect of their
slaves, the rough-hewn, coarse and unmusical jargon of the
American negro — which, however, they had never heard at
the time, and tlierefore could not have learned. But this
absurdity not being sufficiently strong, Mr. Cable makes them
cling to the broken, mutilated, africanized English of the
hlaclx wmn, and reject with rage the importation of the genuine
])ure English of the white man. It is a singular contra^iiction
which could not escape the attention of Mr. Cable. How is it
that he allowed it to stand ? Was it his secret int*»ntion to
]>roduce the impression on his readers in his own sly and co-
vert wavs that the Creoles are instinctivelv attracted, bv a
sort of magnetic influence, to every thing that is low, base
and impure, as a natural effect of that Gallic recklessness
which, since the foun^lation of tlie colony, was the cause of
their ignoble descent from the ill specimens of three races —
Indian, African and French prostitutes? Considering this
agglomerated and ever-ex]mnding heritage of viciously mixe<l
blood that still festers in the veins of more thnn two hundred
thousand of his fellow-citizens, consideiing that, in conse-
quence of it, Louisiana continues to be *'out of joint," as he
says, and to perpetrate such, iniquities as are enumerated in
his *' Freedman's Case in Equity," Mr. Cable must have felt
29
himself justified, at least iu his own mind, wlien he shook the
dust of our streets from his virtuous and indignant shoes, aid
publicly declared that the home ot his choice — the home of
his heart — was in a far distant and more pure region.
The Creoles, to come out purified and clean out of their na«
tive swamps, must, according to Mr. Cable's mandate, give
up, not only their ferocious alligator pride, but also their mule
obstinacy, which he thus illustrates : The Creoles who used
to assemble at the Frowenfeld's shop talked al)out the cession
of Louisiana in the most foolish and incoherent manner. It
could not be otherwise. It would have been unnatural for a
Creole to talk common sense. Frowenfeld, in his unboundea
benevolence, attempts to enlighten them. He preeents to
them "excellent arguments" to remove their deep-rooted
prejudices and their ill founded apprehensions. But, " unfor-
tunately.'' says Mr. Cable, " those arguments gave more heat
than light." If this was the case, is it astonishing that those
arguments produced a more sudorific than convincing effect!
Mr. Cable further informs his readers that those excellent ar-
guments were " merciless f that their principles were " not
only lofty to dizziness, but precipitous," and " their heights
unoccupied, and, to the common sight, unattainable." In
consequence, "they provoked hostility and resentment."
Such is the indictment. Now for the defence. Were the
ci-eoles to be blamed for not understanding arguments so
lofty that only a condor or an eagle could have risen to their
cloud-capped altitude ? Who in this assembly would not be
thrown into a violent state of exasperation, should anybody
assail him with " merciless arguments," with rocky principles,
"not only lotYy to dizziness, but precipitous," towering to
" unoccupied heights, and to common sight, unattainable T
Such an Alpine scenery of arguments and principles might
charm the eyes of mountaineers, but could not be relished by
the natives of the plains, prairies and s^ami^s of Louisiana.
It was Frowenfeld's fault, if not understood. His balloon flew
too high above the flat intellect of those whom he addressed
ill 1803.
30
Mr. Cable himself fell into the same error in the present
year, 1885, when in his " Freedman's Case in Equity," he came
down upon the South with an avalanche of " merciless argu-
ments'' that threatene<l to crush us back into something worse
than the black days of reconstruction ; with a hail-storm of
" principles so lofty " that they made us dizzy— '* principles so
precipitous" that we looked at them with affright— "principles
of such unoccupied and unattainable heights," that we refused
to climb them up with him, and run the risk of breaking our
necks by tailing into the precipice of miscegenation. Other-
wise, he might have had a better chance ot success in huck-
stering his universal panacea, labeled on the bottle : ** Social
and conjugal fusion of the blacks and the whites."
I have only glanced over a book com])08ed of 443 pages.
Neither time nor my inclination permit me to enter into a
more detailed analysis. Sufhce it to say that, from the begin-
ning to the end, this work represents the whole Creole popula-
tio!i as the basest and the most stupid that ever crawled in
the mud of this earth. Take, for instance, the two best speci-
mens among them, as delineated by Mr. Cable : Honors de
Grandissime and Madame de Grapion Nancannou, the refined
par excellence. I have already laid before you the scene l>e-
tween Honor^ and the 8Ui)er-honest immigrant, OrandwHon.
Frowenfeld, without even forgetting the horse that dropped
the grass from his teeth and wheeled half round from the
sudden shock which the conversatian gave to his too sensi-
tive nerves, thus participating in the immigrant's indigna-
tion. Another scene — and this Honor^ ae Grandissime, the
most scrupulous, the most esteemed merchant of New Orleans,
will appear to you in all the splendor which Mr. ('able wishes
to give to his character. He is on the eve of breaking down,
when his colored brother — illegitimate, of course, and named
also Honor^ de Grandissime. to whom their common father
had illegally l)equeathed an immense legacy which, however,
was not contested by the legitimate heirs — proposes to him to
put all his fortune in the house and save it from bankruptcy,
l)rovide<l it l>e henceforth openly carried on as a commercial
♦
firm under their associiited names— tluis constituting a novel
partner ship, the partnership of bastardy and legitimacy, tlio
l)artnersliip of black and white. This most distinguished of
all the Creoles greedily accepts the proposition in these words :
** Oo just a condition — such mere justice, ought to be an easy
condition,'' and, the legitimate white son, "lifting up his
glance reverently" to the colored bastard son, his brother,
further says : " My verj' right to exist comes after yours ;
you are the elder."
Once before, Honor^, the colored man, had said to Honore,
the white man, in the deepest tone of affliction : " Your are the
lawful son of Numa Grandissime. I had no right to be born."
The white brother had "quickly" replied: "By the laws of
man it may be; but by the hiws of God's justice, you are the
lawful son, and It is 1 that should not have been born." Here
we have, to use a common expression, •* the milk of the cocoa-
nut." Here we have the animus that inspired the book and
thepuri)ose for which it was written. The full meaning of
this paragraph can be made apparent in a few words ; and
tliat meaning is startling. According to the new doctrine
which it offers to our approbation, the black concubine of a
white man is, if not by the laws of man, certainly by the laws
of God's justice, a lawtul wife, and the colored child resulting
from this intercourse is legitimate. If that white man, seeing
the sinful error of his way, subsequently marries a white wo-
man, "she is by the laws of God's justice, if not by the laws of
man, a paramour, and her child is a bastard." So much for
the Honorable Honor6 de Grandissime, whom Mr. Cable rep-
resents as the t)est and most intelligent of all the Creoles.
Ah to Madame de Grapion Nancanou, whom Mr. Cable de-
.scribe« as the pearl of pearls, and incomparably superior to
the rest of her sex in Louisiana, she is silly, undignified and
not overburdened with too heavy a load of high-toned moral-
ity ; she rubs the sill of her door with certain plants, and she
besmears her floor with molasses to secure good luck. She is
the intimate friend of the colored queen of the Voudous, and a
Vondou herself-a Christian and a Voudou— a worshiper of
32
Christ and of the serpent at the same time. Mr. Gable is fond
of mixtures. She divides with that queen of the Voudous a
purse of gold purporting to liave been sent by the Devil. At
midnight she ri^es to invoke the demon of the Voudous, and
after having promised him a libation of champagne for the
next day, she creeps into bed aiid offsets this peccadillo by
saying her prayers under her blanket. It is impossible to
read of her treatment of Governor Claiborne on the public
square in front of the Cathedral, without coming to the conclu-
sion that she was better qualified to occupy a stall in the fish
market than a seat in a lady's saloon.
By the by, Mr. Cable, who seems to entertain as much aver-
sion to truth as to Creoles, says that the colored queen whom
Madame Nancanou had taken to her bosom, was noted for the
** chaste austerity " with which she performed the rites of the
Voudous. Well ! It is generally believ;id here that the rites
of the Voudous are so disgusting that no modern language
among civilized nations could be used to describe the ** chaste
austerity ^ of that worship of hideous indecency, and I am
sure that there are few of our negresses, among the most de-
praved, who would not think themselves grievously insulted
by Mr. Cable, if accused by him of being Voudous.
As I wish to be fair and just to Mr. Cable, I must, in con-
cluding, debit him for making at last a sort of charitable con-
cession to the Creoles. At the end of his book. p. 436, he
says: "Under the gentle influence of a higher civilization,
their old Spanish colonial ferocity was gradually absorbed by
the growth of better traits. To-day, almost all the savagery
that Q3iU justly be charged against Louisiana must - strange
to say — be laid at the door of the Americain. The Creole
character has been diluted and sweetened." The ferocity of
Mr. Cable's attacks against the creole population having at
last become also diluted and sweetened, I am glad to declare
that now I wash my hands of him, and making my last bow
to that amiable gentleman, I turn him over to the tender mer-
cies of the " American savagery " that is, to-day, almost ex-
clusively guilty of all the atrocities and infamies perpetrated
in Louisiana.
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any
University of California Library
or to the
NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
BIdg. 400, Richmond Field Station
University of California
Richmond, CA 94804-4698
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS
2-month loans may be renewed by calling
(510)642-6753
1-year loans may be recharged by bringing books
to NRLF
Renewals and recharges may be made 4 days
prior to due date
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW
MAY 71006
DEC 3 1998
«E(URNED
JAN 7 1SG3
^antjj Cn»^ Jitnf»v
20,000 (4/94)
i
